Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Battle for Kydea: Gameplay

The physical Kydéan figures I've shown aren't just display pieces, they're actually designed to be used in turn-based, rule-driven battles. With two or more of these figures and a single six-sided die (singular term for dice), you and a friend can simulate fights that may have actually occurred in the great civil war on Kydea. This isn't about using your imagination, either; you need actual strategy, plus some luck!

Continues...The Basics

The Battle of Kydea game play is intended to be turn-based. Real-world players take turns maneuvering and shooting around a mock battlefield, rolling dice to determine specific parameters of all actions you take. On each turn, you can move each of your units and can perform either offensive or defensive actions with each unit, as allowed by their specific abilities & rules (see the unit details, listed separately).

Naturally, the idea is to try to win by destroying your opponent's (or opponents', if there are 3 or more players) forces. You do this by causing damage through offensive actions like firing weapons. Every unit starts with armor, though, and you need to destroy all of that armor before you can make a killing shot that takes that unit out of commission. More on this under Actions below.

Movement

On each turn, each of your units gets to move a distance determined by its movement speed. The speeds I've given relate to maximum feet a full figure can move around your battlefield within a turn*. So a unit with movement speed 2 can move up to 2 feet in a turn. Use a ruler or tape measure.

Here's where things get interesting! You don't need to move the full amount at once. You can move part-way, then do an action (like shooting), then move the rest of the way, or move back to where you started if you have enough distance remaining! Again with the example of a unit with movement speed 2, you can advance 1 foot, shoot, then advance another foot! Also, your movement doesn't have to be all in one direction. That same unit can move 1/2 foot forward, then 1 1/2 feet to the side to execute a flanking maneuver! You also don't need to move the maximum amount every turn. You can move 1/2 foot, or even stand your ground for as many turns as you like.

The use of cover, or places to hide, is hugely important. Use books, boxes, CD cases, or other household objects (with permission!) to create interesting battle landscapes to move around. Remember that when it's not your turn, enemy units will get their chances to walk around, shoot at you, and/or perform other actions, so you'll need to think ahead and try to plan for their possible moves in advance.

* If you're in a country that uses the metric system, multiply every movement speed number by 30 to convert to a centimeter scale. Speed 1 becomes 30cm, 2 becomes 60cm, 3 becomes 90cm.

Actions

(Skip this first paragraph when not playing with Priests.) Always play your Priests first during any turn. If your enemy has fired successful (damaging or killing) shots at any of your units in the turn they just played, you may be able to deflect one or more of those shots with your Priests, negating the damage. See the High Priest unit detail for specifics. After all of your Priests have played in a turn, remove any of your own destroyed armor pieces or dead units from the battlefield to avoid any confusion.

Shooting with ranged weapons like guns operates on a line-of-sight basis. Your guy has to be able to see the other guy in order to shoot him. With the full-sized figures, to make this simple, either lean down to where you're at your unit's eye level to see what it would be able to see, or use a long straight item like a tape measure or long straight dowel (be careful not to poke any human player's eyes!) to verify that shooter A can see target B. When you're able & ready to shoot, roll a single die (again, that's one piece of dice) and score damage against your enemy as follows:

Miss your shot, oops!

Destroy one armor piece worth up to 2pts

Destroy one armor piece worth up to 3pts

Destroy one armor piece worth up to 4pts

Destroy one armor piece worth up to 5pts

Destroy one armor piece worth up to 6pts and roll again for free. Treat re-rolls like the first. If you hit 6 on a re-roll, you can continue to damage & re-roll until you roll another number.

When you successfully roll for damage, you can remove any enemy armor piece of that value or weaker and leave it at the unit's feet. For example, if you roll a 3, you can remove a 3pt or 2pt armor piece, but not a 4pt piece or anything stronger. If the enemy unit has no functional armor left (figures may have decorative plates that don't count), any damage you can do may execute a killing shot -- knock the enemy over where it stands, but don't remove it from the battlefield just yet. If your enemy has a Priest, there's a chance they may use their Jedi-like powers to actually deflect that shot, in which case your shot becomes a miss, and the armor piece gets put back on or the unit's life gets saved in the next turn.

All unit-specific actions are explained in the unit type descriptions. Most actions are based upon line of sight just like shooting.

See also

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